Navigating through life's terrain.

_Life is tough for lots of people. I’m sure lots of you in this room understand and know that we live in a world where the terrain can be rough sometimes. That rough terrain can be pain, abuse, fear, worry, anxiety, ill health, its betrayal, divorce, its brokenness and mistrust, it’s everywhere. Those are the hills and the valleys of our lives. That’s what it looks like and when Jesus commissioned us to go out into the world he sent us as his representatives into the world around us. He knew what that landscape looked like. He knew that the landscape was rough; he knew that the landscape had mountains and valleys in it. And we would be amongst those trying to navigate our way through a landscape that can be often challenging and difficult to get through.I think for some of us as Christians we feel like life should be like a motorway. It should have this smooth tarmac where now that I’m a Christian, now that I have God in my life, the mountains should change from the mountains I used to see around me to a nice smooth tarmac road. And we get angry at God when we have to face trials and we have to face challenges in relationships. When we bring up children who don’t do what we say. And when the consequences of that affect everybody’s life. We start saying “Hey God where’s my tarmac road I thought I was going to have”. I would like to talk today about how to navigate through rough terrain. Because God changes us and we through that relationship in Him change our lives. We can learn how to navigate through life using all the tools that the Bible talks about and that God makes available to us.I’m going to read to you from Luke 6, the Message, just so you will know what Jesus had to say about our landscape. He said this, “and its trouble ahead, if you think life is all fun and games. There is suffering to be met, and you are going to have to meet it.” These are Jesus’ words now. There is trouble ahead if you think life is all fun and games.So if as a Christian you think you have a right to just have a lovely, rose gardened life, then actually Jesus says that is not true. You are going to have him with you whilst you navigate through life but trouble will come. Probably more so as a Christian. This is not because God is punishing us and I want to make it really clear that today. God does not send pain and abuse or torment into our lives to teach us a lesson. He is the good and perfect father. I didn’t teach Billy and Sammy that the fire is hot by throwing them in it! But the consequences of them touching the fire, when I had told them it’s hot were pain. And that is what I’m trying to say today is pain and hurt and disappointment and challenges, opportunities to be hurt and offended are around us every day. And they are consequences of peoples’ choices. We live in a fallen world and hurt people, hurt people. Trouble comes in our lives because we have an enemy. Who seeks to kill, steal and destroy. Did you know that bad things can happen to good people? Bad things can happen to good people. If bad things are happening to you right now that doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Good people can have hard times. And just to prove to you I’m going to read to you from 2 Corinthians 11. Because the Apostle Paul who I would say was a pretty good person, I know he had a chequered past but God used Him mightily. He was an apostle and wrote two thirds of the New Testament. And this is what he says about the landscape of his life. “I’ve worked much harder been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count and at deaths door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews thirty nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummelled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard journeys travelling year in and year out I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country and endangered by desert sun and seas storms and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labour, many a long and lonely night without sleep. Many a missed meal, blasted by the cold naked to the weather.”Can any one of us say that we have had that kind of life? Some of us maybe? But that does not mean you are a bad person. It does not mean you are getting it wrong. It just means that you are finding yourself in the hills and the valleys and the mountains that our world is made up of. I was born in January 1963; those of you who can remember that far back will remember it was one of the worst winter storms ever. I don’t think even last year’s snow could compare. Mum describes some of the snow drifts in South Wales as being the height of the telegraph poles! My dad, thank God had a Landrover and if it wasn’t for that land rover Mum would never have got to the hospital to have me! Ahhhhh! That landrover was built, it was designed and purposed and fully equipped to be able to handle just about any terrain. Including snow! Nowadays a Landrover discovery has a special button with a W, for Winter and all you do is press it and the car does everything it needs to do to compensate for the terrain it now finds itself in. And all you do is that you sit and drive still carefully but it navigates smoothly and gives you every possible chance of success of reaching your destination safely. What my Dad would have given for an up to date Landrover Discovery. However he did prepare the best he could by putting chains on all the tyres in order to get Mum to hospital so his wife and child could be delivered safely. Ahhhh!When I was likening life in difficult times to a car and thinking of that story around my birth. I felt God saying “I have equipped, built and designed my people to navigate the terrain of this life.” Most people don’t realise it. They don’t know that they have a w button. They don’t know that they have four wheel drive, they don’t know that they have side impact protection bars. They don’t know that something happens to the traction when the landscape gets skiddy and it looks like you are going to skid and lose control, something kicks into the wheels that actually propel you forward. We have those things built into us as Christians but many of us are living our lives in a mini!We don’t realise that God has equipped us for rough terrain and so we get into our mini, our small life and wonder why we are getting battered and bruised and not getting anywhere.There are four things I have thought about which would be symptoms if you like of someone living their life in a Mini. One of them is that you tend to live one day at a time. Because living in a Mini restricts your view. Have you ever sat in a Mini? You can’t see very well because the window screens are not that big. The windows restricts what you can see compared to the elevated position of a four by four. And you find yourself living day to day. If I can just get through today. Lord give me everything I need to get through this day! Some of our youth today in this generation self harm. It is one of their coping mechanisms. They can’t see into the future. They can’t see that there is a hope and a future. That God has plans to prosper them and not to harm them. They can’t see that. Why? Because they are in a small car. Their life is reduced to the point where they can’t see past the next day. May be you are like that. The capacity to carry things is very small. Someone who is living their life in a mini means they cannot carry a lot of things. They can’t carry responsibility, they struggle to pay their bills, and they struggle to get to places on time. Their life is dysfunctional because they don’t have the knowledge as to where these buttons are that we can press when we need help to navigate.You know it’s impossible to progress at speed when you live in a Mini because you get stuck in the mud or in the snow. And your wheels spin round and round and round and you go over the same issue again and again. Another relationship breakdown, another disappointment another failure again and again and again and you can almost hear the wheels spinning in someone life. And out they get and start digging. I must get out of this mess, I’ve got to get out of this crisis I am in, but I don’t know how. You know any passengers that are with you if you are living your life in a Mini get battered and bruised as well. If you get five people in a Mini and you get stuck or you are going over a bumpy road you are going to be bumping and bruising into each other. And people who live lives inside their Mini everyone around them is affected, people that love them, the people that try and help them, and the people who are doing life alongside them. There is opportunity for lots of hurt and pain when people live inside their Minis.God never intended us to take on the hills and the valleys of this world inside a Mini. Like I said earlier, He sends good and perfect gifts and there are ways to enlarge our lives. There is the right kind of vehicle to live our life in. And I like to call it the Discovery Life. Especially when I think of my Father’s determination to get my Mum to hospital no matter what the terrain!I would like to show you a little clip because although I could describe what a Discovery could do for you the clip can do it so much better. It’s from Top Gear; I want you to see what life is like when you are in a Discovery. So have a look at this clip…..You certainly see how a Discovery will help! I’m just going to read from Psalm 18 verses 30-36 from the Amplified Bible. These are Kind David’s Words. He says “The God that girds me in strength and makes my way perfect, He makes my feet like hinds feet able to stand firmly and make progress on the dangerous heights of testing and trouble. He sets me securely on my high places”.Now obviously King David had no idea that cars would ever be invented. But if he had he might have said “He takes my Mini and He gives me a Discovery.” You know I love the fact that King David mentions that it’s not a smooth road God places him on. He actually says, and I quote “the dangerous heights of testing and trouble.” You know some of us in this room today may have been asking God for a very long time to take away the mountains. Take away the mountain Lord. But I actually think instead god wants to give you the right equipment to get to the top of it. And Clarkson said, and I can’t believe I’m going to quote him, he said “what this car does is bring civilization and comfort to bits of the world that otherwise be difficult and inhospitable.” You see driving your life in a Discovery instead of a Mini will give you comfort on an uncomfortable journey. Paul who I quoted earlier when he gave that massive long list of all the trials and tribulations that he faces, further on he talks about an answer from God, for he had asked God three times to take away the tormentor. He had a thorn in his side that was called the Tormentor and God’s response to Paul’s request to “can we please have a smooth tarmac road for awhile” was “my grace is enough” “It’s all you need”. “My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” And Paul says this, “Once I heard that I was glad to let it happen, I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness, now I take limitations in stride and in good cheer. These limitations that cut me down to size, abuse, accidents, opposition bad breaks. What does he do? He gets into his Discovery. “I just let Christ take over, the weaker I get, the stronger I become. Let Christ take over.” You know that is what we do, one of the things we do in order to get into the position to be able to get to the top of a mountain, is we get Christ into the driving seat for a start! I want to break this down practically and I believe we can do these three ways because it’s all very well me talking about getting from Minis into Discoveries but what does that actually mean for you in your everyday life. And so first thing is you need to change your fuel. To change what is going on inside of you and the reactions you have on the inside. It’s like turning remorse into resolve. It’s about attitude. You’ve got to start by changing your attitude and perspective on what you are looking at. The dictionary says this about remorse – it’s a deep sense of regret and guilt and then it says in brackets, a knowing inside. Now any of you have ever gone through any sense of trial, tribulation, challenge will know what that feels like. A knowing inside of yourself that regret, wishing it could be different, wishing you’d said something different, wishing that person hadn’t done that. You know remorse sounds like this “ God this is terrible, I can’t go on any longer, I can’t go on, I can’t sleep I’m so worried, my head hurts, I’m so angry, I can’t forgive, I won’t forgive, I won’t ever let anyone close to me again.”Remorse will knore on the inside of you. You can almost hear the wheels spinning. When remorse is the attitude that over rides everything on the inside of a person.Resolve on the other hand in the dictionary means this – to decide or determine firmly, to change or alter, to find a solution, to bring to an end, to possess a firmness of purpose and determination. It’s a complete turnaround of attitude. It sounds like this: “But you oh God, yes my life looks like this right now, but you oh God are my rock and my salvation, you are the hope, and you are my everything. Your grace will sustain me, your word says your grace is sufficient so I’m going to walk in your grace in this situation. And I’m going to choose to forgive even though I don’t feel like it. Because your word says that is what is going to help me get free. So I’m going to choose to forgive every day, every second of every day if that is what it takes. Resolve responds positively to the word of God in your life. It’s an attitude, it’s a change of perspective, it’s a rising up on the inside of I know my life looks like this right now but I’m not going to let it stay this way, cause this is not the life that God has planned for me. And I choose to believe the truth of God’s word over the facts of my life. There is the facts of the circumstances you face but then there is the higher truth of the word of God and when you apply that to the situation, you will soon see the facts change.The situation may have not have changed when you speak from the place of resolve but it’s a starting point. It’s a starting point. You know King David constantly, look in the Psalms; he constantly turned from remorse to resolve. There are some other psalms where he laid low in the dust, “You can count the bones in my body, my enemies surround me everywhere, Where are you God I’m sick of this you said you would come through and you are not here yet, what’s going on I’m going to die. That’s what King David sounds like sometimes. But there is always a moment when his remorse and the knoring inside himself turns. And you can read it. Suddenly he goes “but you oh God, but as for you, You are where I look to where does my help comes from”. It comes from the Lord Almighty. And you see him change his perspective from these are my circumstances to, that is where my help comes from. And unless you make that transition, unless you go from the Mini, “I’m stuck in this, I’m stuck in this, I’m stuck in this”. Unless you change from that to the Discovery which says “But God is bigger than all of this.” God has got a plan and purpose for my life and it isn’t to live here, it isn’t to live with this day in and day out. This is going to change. It starts with a change of attitude.The second thing is don’t let your emotions be in the driving seat. And as women I have to say, this is huge! Because we don’t understand the power of our emotions and actually they were never meant to have that power. Emotions aren’t meant to drive things, they can give you indications, they are moods, they help you process stuff. But they are not meant to be carried; they are supposed to pass through you. Emotions come and they go. Many of us hold onto emotion and it goes off, and it becomes more powerful than it needs to be. You know not that long ago I faced a situation where, mostly I’m out of my depth everyday but this one was particularly bad I couldn’t see the shoreline anywhere; I was stranded in the big ocean of despair. I could not see my way out of the situation I was in. Things out of my control, things expected of me that I had no way of delivering. It was in our first parish and first year of marriage, Billy was a tiny baby and Mike’s arthritis was particularly bad so much so he could barely get down the stairs and I had to dress him and undress him. My pain was for him and the unfairness of it all. I remember buttering bread in the kitchen and standing there feeling literally waves of despair coming over me. I felt like I was drowning in it. And if any of you have been in that sort of situation you’ll know what I mean. It’s almost like you can’t breathe. And I was feeling this sense of it’s all over, you might as well give up now. You’ll never get out of this. You know God’s not going to come through, you’re not good enough for this, you haven’t got what it takes, who ever thought you had what it takes anyway. All these thoughts were coming. And I couldn’t do anything and then I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit. Really quietly in my waves of buttering bread and He said right now choose JOY! Right now choose JOY! I’m like, What! What do you mean choose joy! Joy about what! But I’ve been a Christian long enough to know when the Holy Spirit speaks to you in a moment like that, you listen and you obey.And so I decided I was not going to let my emotions be in the driving seat and I chose joy. And I’ll tell you how I did it. I started singing a little song that I used to sing as a child in Sunday school. “Rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice.” I was singing it rather like this “ Rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice”. Didn’t mean it but I knew it was what I needed to do. And sometimes choosing something against your emotions feels all wrong but you know its right. And I sang it again and again and I started marching up and down my kitchen, “Rejoice, rejoice again I say rejoice” Mike comes in turns around and limps out again, he knows not to mess with me when I’m singing with a knife in my hand! “Rejoice, rejoice again I say rejoice!” And I tell you something within a few minutes I could feel a change. It was like the ocean of despair was pulling back and joy started coming inside my spirit. Rejoice and I commanded myself, do what the word says and to rejoice and then I remembered James 1 “dear brothers and sisters when trouble comes your way consider it an opportunity for great joy for you know that when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow, so let it grow. For when your endurance has fully developed, you’ll be perfect and complete needing nothing. So against everything in that moment, I chose joy.And then something else happened, joy came yes and that was good but something else came that was even more powerful… and it was peace. Because as I focused on God and as I allowed His joy, because it wasn’t my joy, “The joy of the Lord will give you strength”. It was His joy that I allowed space to grow inside me in that moment. I found this incredible sense of peace. And Philippians 4 says that if we learn to rejoice in the Lord always, that means when the circumstances of our lives are good or whether they are not. Then God promised as a result of that, His peace. And Paul says this “God’s peace shall be yours”. And he explains what that is “that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is. That kind of peace. And it transcends all understanding; it will mount a garrison and a guard over your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. And that’s what I found happen in that situation. I chose joy against my emotions. I took my emotions out of the driving seat. I did what God told me to do. It came up inside me, peace entered my heart and that situation did not change that day, or the day after or the day after that. But inside my heart there was this peace and around my mind was a peace that that situation had no longer control over me and over the way I was going to handle it. You know I believe that many people in the Bible, some of the heroes and the stories we read, they all have experiences like that. Where they had to choose against their emotions and God’s peace came. I think Esther found that peace when she came out of her three days of prayer and fasting which had started because of an issue she was facing, she said “If I perish! I perish.” That is someone who fears nothing from God is content whatever her earthly lot maybe. “If I perish! I perish.” There was a peace in her. I think James found that peace when he told us to count up your joy, when you face trials and tribulations, I think he knew what that felt like. I think Mary found that kind of peace when heard from the Angel Gabriel that she was going to have a baby and she replied “Let it be unto me as you have said.” You only say that from a place of peace. I think Ruth had that peace when she said to Naomi “Your God is my God. I’m going to follow you.” Leaving everything she knew behind. Remember this was the God who hadn’t necessarily protected Naomi’s sons from death. Yet despite the circumstances Ruth decided that she would follow. She did that from a place of peace. That is part of life living life in a Discovery when peace transcends all understanding. When peace guards your heart and your mind when circumstances would have you live otherwise. The third thing is that your thoughts are like a Sat Nav. They will determine your destination. As a man thinks so he is. What goes on up here will determine where you end up. You programme into your thoughts are like programming a sat nav and whichever route you think you can take you will end up at that destination. Because your thoughts are going to get you there one way or another. Both bad ones and good ones. You should know that what goes on in our hearts and our minds during trial, during tribulation, during adversity is absolutely fundamental to how we go through that situation. And I’ll share another little story to illustrate it. To show you how to apply these things to your daily lives. About three years ago I had high blood pressure, I went to the Doctor and they checked for protein in my urine and suddenly I was faced with all kinds of fears of my kidneys deteriorating and ending up having dialysis. I had a 24 hour B/P recording and an ECG done and bloods checked. Then there was the two weeks waiting for the results. How many of you know that’s when the battle starts? So I went to sleep that night and I had been reading Psalm 23, it says “you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies”. I had been meditating on that and thinking about that and asking God what does that mean? Why have you prepared a table in the presence of my enemies? I don’t understand that. And as I fell asleep, I had this most vivid dream. Normally I can never remember my dreams but this time I did. And it’s probably the only God dream I’ve had because I remember vividly every detail. And as I was in this dream, I was sitting round this large table with Faith, and Hope and Love and Peace and Joy and Wisdom and Strength. They were all characters around this table and we were chatting and laughing and joking and passing the salt, and singing and telling stories. It was just a scene of a normal group of friends having a great time together. And I was sat there at this table being aware of who my companions were I looked over to the bar and in the shadows were stood three figures. And I heard God tell me they were fear, doubt and unbelief. I said to God why are they here; they have no right to be here. And He said to me, they do. He said to me your life is a public domain. Whilst ever you live your life on this earth, fear, doubt, worry, unbelief will be on the fringes of it. But who sits at your table is by invitation only. And suddenly I realised that what goes on inside my head is by invitation only. Yes our life is surrounded by enemies, by opposition by forces of the enemy that will seek to get us off course. But what goes on inside our heads is absolutely and completely under our own control. Jesus gave us the authority, and he actually gave us the command to take every thought captive. And make it obedient to Christ. And then I saw something else happen in my dream. Fear started coming closer, because every time I looked over, every time I glanced over, if I gave him any sense of attention, he’d take another step. Until suddenly he was standing directly behind faith. And God said to me if you notice there are no more seats at your table and Faith will not share her place with fear. Who are you going to invite to sit down? And I could see them both look at me with a sense of it’s up to you. And again I realised we have the power of choice. God has given us that. He has delegated authority to us. We get to chose who we do our thought life with. We need to choose our company wisely. And when we get bombarded by thoughts of fear and worry and anxiety, God expects us and has given us the authority to say “hang on a minute that thought of – I will never make it or this is finally the end of me – or oh no not again. That thought does not line up with the Word of the Holy Spirit with the word of God over my life. And so I take it captive and I make it obedient to Christ and I say “ I will not believe that , I will not confess that with my mouth.” And I found myself in those few days speaking the word of God. I woke up and I would say “today is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” And all of those things came into play with things I’ve already talked about. Things like not letting emotions rule and at the time Sammy my youngest who would have been 12 had a night mare dream waking up in the middle of the night, who knew nothing of the journey I was on saying she’d had a dream that Mum was hurt and in trouble. And I’m like, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Me you can have a go at, you leave my children out of this! And the enemy made a slight mistake there. He didn’t take account of the mother in me that just went No! You do not ever take my children or teenagers now I should say, on. And out of me came rising up a sense of righteous indignation of authority and understanding of what God has given me to control as a daughter of the King and that is my mind and my body my family, these belong to me and the enemy has no right to be there. So when you are bombarded with thoughts of worthlessness, of shame, of fear, of despair of losing control. They are direct lies that God expects and has equipped us to deal with. By using the word of God. Sometimes you need to write down the lie that you believe in and you find the truth of the word of God instead and you start reading out the truth. When you get bombarded with the lie you go “ I choose right now in Jesus’ name not to believe that and I’m going to believe this instead. The old has gone the new has come, I’m a new creation I Christ, I can do all things through Christ who has strengthened me. And you start speaking the truth out, using your own mouth to control your brain. It works! I’m telling you. It’s hard to start with, the more you do it the easier it gets. And before you know it it’s virtually impossible for an enemy like fear or doubt or worry to have any breathing space around your table, because the minute he comes near you, you go get away, you do not belong here, I have not invited you to sit at my table, Go! That is how you learn to live your life in a Discovery Car. Because you increase your capacity to deal with the challenges life throws at you. Because you have the equipment, the tools to help you. You basically press the W button ! Worship! Worship is a W button. When everything inside you is down on the floor that is the moment you choose to worship. That is the moment you choose to fix your eyes on God above. The best way to do that is worship. That is my new W button. Worship. You know there is another interesting point I wanted to make as part of this. When you do get to live this Discovery Life, when you find yourself applying these tools to your life, you’re growing in your capacity, you’re leading others, and you’re having an impact in your community and in your church. Don’t keep that great life parked in your drive. It’s got equipment for rough terrain. Don’t be someone who drives to the shop and back in your 4 by 4 life. Don’t become one of those people that have this huge capacity and only use it for their own comfort. And I’m going to read to you an advert from the Guardian. This is hilarious, spray on mud, the ultimate accessory for city 4 by 4 drivers. I’m not joking, it cost £7.99.! With spray on mud says the chief executive of this company, they can make it look like it has been off road, instead of just driving to the shops and back. This is for the Chelsea’s 4 by 4’s. I’m serious! But do you know what, true in the natural, true in the spiritual. How many Christians have got everything they need to grow great big world impacting lives and keep that life parked on the drive. And they might spray on the mud; make it look like they are doing all the right things, saying all the right things, but really what impact are they actually having. You know don’t fear the damage that driving your car off road can have. It’s built for that. You’ve been given the tools to help others, so use them. The Discovery Life is a seven seater car. It is designed so that we can help others and pick people up to travel in comfort on the way. When we grow big lives it’s meant to impact the people around us. 4 by 4’s are expensive and they are used as a status symbol but not so in the Christian walk. When God gives you and reigns on you his blessing, and his grace and his mercy, your life grows because of that, it’s meant to be of service not for status. So that you can pick others up. I would love to see God in our community. To see the joy of broken people restored to who God designed them to be.. The lost – found. The lonely in the church community. To see people find the peace that passes all understanding. I want to see the view at the top of the mountain; Jeremy Clarkson said “no other car has been here before.” The broken and the lost are off road. They are not on the main roads. They are out there somewhere off road, they’re on the fringes of society. We need to have lives that can go and get them. We need to have lives that can go and find them in the gutters. We need to have cars that can get there and then get them back out again. The ordinary doing the extraordinary.I may have the body of a mini but I can be a discovery and I want to take it out of the garage. Let’s pray.…………Father, there are so many of us here today who can testify about your love, your grace and you rescued us when we had no hope. Just reach out now just for a moment because I feel we should dedicate and commit ourselves. As we have received you O Lord so we want to give. We want to take our Discovery and we want to take it out on the road where ever you lead us. So now in this minute restore, release, equip us, envision us. Help us even now to see what you are saying to us. Dream big dreams and Lord to have the confidence to go for it. Banish all fear, all hopelessness, lack of self confidence or lack of self esteem from our lives, because now Lord we receive all you have got to give and we want to go and give it away to a world that needs you so much. Thank you Jesus.